Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

41 reviews

happysami's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, War, Death, and Body horror

alphabet_soup_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Genocide, Grief, Gore, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Death, Murder, Child death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Dementia, Medical trauma, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, Ableism, Alcohol, and Body shaming

clpavain's review against another edition

dark tense

This is the scariest book I've ever read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Murder, Body horror, Blood, Confinement, Gun violence, Violence, and Torture

beebats's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gore

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Body shaming, Violence, Fatphobia, Suicide, Blood, and War

a_cera_t0ps's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It was easy to get lost in this book. It was one of the most well researched space sci-fi pieces of media, especially in the young adult genre.

While the plot and external circumstances had very strong involvement, (i.e. BeiTech/the Lincoln) the story seemed very focused on the internal fallout of basically every named character (as much as possible without overcrowding the book).

There is a romance, technically two, but in neither does it feel forced. Between Kady and Ezra, it is a natural development; they had just broken up when the attack had happened, it was not due to a lack of feelings on either side. Throughout the book, they work together to survive. They put petty fights behind them. It's a very nontoxic relationship, and it was really engaging to read.
The other romance is probably mad spoilers, but is also well written. It intentionally goes against the grain of the natural character capabilities, but that is a heavy part of the plot: the breakage of what once was, especially when it comes to the Alexander's personel, body, and mind. 

The book was very quippy, and was written from individual perspectives, even when most of it is an outside observer. The writer style and format was all extremely creative, and in some ways, it needed to be. It is interesting to have such a clear example of just how different a movie is from that which a book is capable of.
This book was long, but it went fast, both due to the intriguing use of certain pages and to just pure engagement.

The main plot is Violent with a capital v. It is a rescue mission, a mystery, a zombie apocalypse, and a war. The romance is integral to the character's actions, but as actively involved as it is, they never undermine the important stuff. This is a character driven story: the importance and diversity of humanity (the moral stuff, not a group of people) is heavily explored, especially in the fourth quarter of the book. 

This is a crazy good book, with too many twists and turns for me to cover all of it, so just read it for yourself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, War, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Murder, and Confinement

Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, and Genocide

Minor: Colonisation, Confinement, Police brutality, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

kathrynleereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I will never have enough good things to say about Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. The Illuminae Files trilogy blows my mind every time I read it.

First of all, the format is ingenious. An entire story told just through different files and documents? Count me in.

Second, the complexity required by those files. If you take the time to actually delve into the pages (even the ones that don't look too important to the story, like the list of confirmed deceased), you'll be blown away by what you find.

Third, any author who has the ability to make me care about a mass-murdering robot will forever have my loyalty. 

If you haven't read the Illuminae Files, I recommend that you drop everything and start now. Even if sci-fi isn't necessarily your cup of tea, I promise you won't be disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Body horror, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, and War

Moderate: Medical content, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Genocide

Minor: Alcohol and Vomit

stevi_nicole's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, War, Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Minor: Death of parent

itsbumley's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Death, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Murder, Violence, Blood, Gore, Suicide, Child death, Gun violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jessi_c's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I went into this with space adventure vibes of Firefly/Serenity, but I ended up with the horror, space thriller vibes of Serenity. When that tonal shift happened, the story took off and I got incredibly absorbed to the bittersweet end. I was supposed to slowly read this thru the month of Aug and here I am, finished a week in. Going to find the other two books to fill the month. Well done!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Suicide, Grief, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Gun violence, Body horror, and Vomit

Minor: Cursing

mothreadsbookssometimes's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Illuminae was a fantastic book and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. I first read the Aurora Cycle trilogy, and I loved it so much that I had to read the rest of Kristoff’s and Kaufman’s works. And boy, am I having a time!
Illuminae is a very YA-friendly sci-fi mystery/thriller (I know it’s not tagged as a thriller, but it is) with minimal swearing (“censored on reports”), and only vague references to sex (jokes about “your sister” and references to acts done prior to the events of the story). 
Take it from someone who normally hates thrillers, this book is good. Admittedly, there’s a lot of death and blood (only a few disturbingly gory parts, though), so do keep that in mind, but I didn’t find it too uncomfortable and I’m normally a very squeamish person. 
Can’t wait for the next book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gore, and Death of parent

Minor: Confinement, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, and Self harm

I know it’s a lot of content warnings, so do proceed with caution. I’m not very good with blood/gore, but I only had a couple small parts (see below) that made me uncomfortable. There’s a lot of death, but it’s not vividly gory until about 45% (I think) into the book

when they enter the quarantine bay and 70% through

when the remaining Alexander survivors escape the ship

. For the most part, they just say “there’s blood/dead bodies/screams in the distance” but they don’t go into great detail with every mention of violence.